“As leaders of that young nation assembled in 1787 to craft a Constitution, Benjamin Franklin implored the framers to pray for guidance, famously declaring, ‘The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men.'”

A stirring observation, to be sure. But there's more to the story, according to H.W. Brands, a University of Texas historian. Brands was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,” which captures the irreverent, roguish bon vivant who lent his intellectual and diplomatic skills to birthing our nation. Here's what Brands says Perry's proclamation didn't mention:

Franklin's prayer never happened.

Brands acknowledges Franklin made the suggestion that the Constitutional Convention begin each day's deliberations with prayer, but he describes the idea as “a psychological move more than anything else.”

According to Brands, Franklin was “so fed up” with the blowhards gumming up progress — apparently Alexander Hamilton could be a real windbag — that he wanted to introduce the idea that no one faction had all the answers.

“It was mostly getting people like Hamilton to admit there might be a higher intelligence than their own,” Brands says.

Likewise, biographer Walter Isaacson wrote in “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life,” that he was a believer in a “nebulous divine providence,” but never demonstrated a belief that “God would intervene directly based on personal prayer.”

Like Brands, Isaacson concluded that Franklin suggested the prayer largely “out of a pragmatic political belief that it would encourage calm in the deliberations.”

But some delegates thought the prayer would frighten the public into believing they were desperate. So the idea “was quietly shelved,” Isaacson wrote.

It is not surprising the story of Franklin's endorsement of prayer has lost its context. There are a lot of people who want to believe Franklin and the rest of our Founding Fathers were reverent, prayerful and — this is key — Christians.

Perhaps foremost among them is David Barton, the Aledo Republican activist and founder of WallBuilders, which, according to its website, is “a national pro-family organization that represents America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious and constitutional heritage.” Among other beliefs, the WallBuilders reject the notion that our Founding Fathers sought a separation of church and state.

It's not surprising that Perry and Barton embrace the same version of history, given Barton's advocacy of Christianity in history textbooks and Perry's organization of a strictly Christian prayer event. Neither Barton nor Perry sees any problem with a public official promoting a particular religion.

Other presidents turned down appeals for national prayer. A cholera epidemic in the 1830s prompted a group of Protestant ministers to appeal to Andrew Jackson for a National Day of Prayer. But Jackson, like so many of today's conservatives, was a “strict constructionist” of the U.S. Constitution — and he didn't see any reference to prayer in that document.

“He told them to go back to their congregations and pray themselves,” Brands said.